Flower
by Brian1
Summary: Rukia tries to find Ichigo after an argument between them gets ugly.


**Flower**

"Rukia," he said, breaking the comfortable silence in the room.

She had been lying on his bed, reading a manga that she had borrowed from one of his sisters. Probably the tomboy, she had realized later, when she was treated to a variety of action sequences with a special emphasis on, of all sports, soccer.

"What is it, Ichigo?" she replied in a detached manner, not bothering to look up.

There was a pause, before he threw up his hands in the air and let out a sigh. "Forget about it."

She kept reading, only somewhat interested in what was bothering him. "No, tell me."

"You're not even paying attention to me," he said in an exasperated tone.

She looked up, giving him a stern look. "Yes I am, idiot. Tell me what's wrong."

He crossed his arms and looked away, a scowl on his face. "Just forget about it."

She jumped off his bed and jumped off, with all the grace her artificial body would allow, and stood right in front of his face. "No, tell me what you wanted to say."

Just as he was about to open his mouth, a cell phone started to ring. Ichigo immediately looked at his desk, confirming that it was his cell phone, not Rukia's, that was ringing. He went over and picked it up, speaking in hushed tones, causing Rukia to grow even more suspicious.

"Hey," she said, taking hold of one of his arms, shaking it roughly. "What the hell are you saying?"

He used his height to his advantage as he pushed her back with relative ease, though she managed to get in a few good shots to his ribs and midsection.

"I see," he said, quiet enough that she couldn't make out a word. "I'll be right there."

Rukia's fists were balled up, ready to hit Ichigo for his transgressions. "What the hell was that about? What are you hiding from me?"

"You're being really weird, you know that?" he suddenly exclaimed, getting right in her face.

She blinked, momentarily shocked, before returning to a look of utter annoyance. "I'm weird? I'm _weird_?"

He nodded in agreement, an evil grin on his face. "You're the weirdest girl I've ever known in my life-"

She didn't allow him to finish, deciding instead to punch him in the face, causing him to double back in pain. His vision blurred for a moment, although he could still make out Rukia's slender frame.

She was absolutely fuming now. First he was hiding something from her, and now he had the audacity to call her _weird_? This was simply unforgivable!

"What have you got to say for yourself now, Ichigo Kurosaki!" she asked in a half-crazy tone, her anger getting the better of her.

He rubbed the side of his cheek, which was remarkably starting to bruise. She felt a half-second of remorse, before deciding that he had more than deserved the bruise she had given him.

"I'm sorry," was all he said, as he picked himself up off the floor and quietly left the room.

She watched him close the door behind him, and waited for him to come back. When he didn't come back after five minutes, she began to worry, wondering if she had been too harsh. She sat on his bed, keeping an eye on the door. When an hour had passed and there was still no sign of Ichigo, she decided to be proactive and look for him herself.

And maybe if he was nice enough…she would apologize too.

-

She had changed into her soul reaper form, as it would allow her to cover more ground quicker than if she were in her gigai. She jumped from rooftop to rooftop swiftly, one hand ready to take out her soul slayer in case she encountered any Hollows.

_Where is that idiot? _she thought to herself.

His normally high spirit force would've tipped her off instantly, but for some reason his presence could not be felt. The only high level spirit energy she could feel was the Quincy, whose energy was fluctuating in a decidedly interesting manner; however, she had no time to investigate.

He could've been anywhere in the city, she realized, but it would be better to go and look for him instead of wait

She settled on a high rooftop, hoping she would be able to concentrate and locate him more easily. She closed her eyes and let her own spirit energy increase, trying to see if she could duplicate the Quincy's method of tracking. Tendrils of white suddenly appeared before her, all leading to spiritually endowed humans throughout the city. She searched through the sea of white threads, until she found a red one among them.

_Found you, Ichigo! _she thought with a triumphant smile, taking hold of the thread of red and following it to its source.

-

Rukia found that the thread led her to a small bed of flowers, conveniently placed right next to the school. In all the time she had spent in the human world, which admittedly wasn't all that long, she had never noticed the place. It was hidden by a few dense trees, making it the perfect spot to hide, rather than for a bed of flowers.

"How can these flowers grow with barely any sun?" she mused, looking up and shielding her eyes from a single ray of sunshine penetrating through the foliage. It was a nice and shady spot, this place.

Then it hit her: why would Ichigo be in a place like this?

She turned her head and found him, lazily sitting against a tree, seemingly not noticing her presence at all. She sheathed her sword, feeling no hollow presence in the area, and walked over to him, ready to scold him for making her look for him.

"I bought something from sandal-hat," he said, still not facing her. "It let me temporarily hide my spirit energy. I still don't quite know how to do it myself, so I used some of the stuff he sold me. Crap tasted awful, though."

She looked down on him, irritated by how casual he was being about things. "What if a hollow had attacked? What If I needed-"

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "There's always Renji."

"He's not," she muttered, swallowing hesitantly, "you."

This caused him to turn his head in her direction, an odd look on his features. He motioned for her to sit next to him, and she did so, feeling somewhat awkward in the process.

"Why are you here?" she finally asked.

"This is where," he said, patting the ground, "my mother used to take me a lot, when I was small."

She looked around, and found that it was quite a lovely place. Nice, cool, shady…

"We don't have much of a yard at the clinic, so mom would get some seeds and plant flowers here," he said. "After she died, I took over taking care of them."

He crossed his arms at this point, a scowl on his face. "If anyone ever found out that I watered plants, my reputation would be ruined. That idiot Keigo would never let me live it down."

She smiled reassuringly at him, as if to tell him that his secret was safe with her.

"How do they manage to grow with so little sunlight?" she asked, genuinely intrigued. They reminded her of something oddly familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

He shrugged. "No clue, probably something special about those seeds mom bought. I wouldn't know…I just water them every now and then."

She nodded carefully.

"Wait, what was up with that argument you started earlier then?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I didn't start the argument! You started it!"

She shot him a death glare. "I did not."

They both glared at each other, before Ichigo finally managed to turn his head away from her and respond with, "I just wanted to come here. I didn't know if you'd laugh or do something stupid."

The face she was making at him melted away into a more thoughtful one. She suddenly felt bad for her reaction earlier…it must have been the reason why he left, besides the fact that she had also punched him in the face.

"How's your face? I didn't hit it too hard, did I?" she asked, using her hand to examine the slight reddening on his cheek. He stiffened under her touch, before eventually relaxing and letting her check freely.

"I'm fine," he muttered darkly. "No thanks to you though."

Instead of an equally harsh retort from the dark haired girl, she merely laid her hand against his cheek, surprising both of them. She looked at him with those big blue eyes of hers, causing a momentary shiver to go down the much younger man's back. Her hand was soft against his bruised cheek…much too soft to be Rukia. Her hand glowed, and he knew that she was using demon arts to heal the bruise. He had been so used to Inoue healing his wounds that he almost forgot that Rukia could do it too.

"Rukia…?"

"I'm sorry," she said. Before he could say anything she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She recalled her Ichigo's father attempting to kiss the "boo-boo" on Yuzu's scrapped knee the other day; she thought it might be amusing to do the same with Ichigo.

He froze, reddening in the face a great deal. Did she just give him a kiss on the cheek? No way.

She stood up and smiled. "I'll see you back at the house, Ichigo."

Without another word she leapt up into the air and out of sight, leaving one very confused teenage boy amidst a bed of flowers.

**End**


End file.
